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   Bhakti Purusottama Swami
   His Holiness Bhakti Purusottama Swami Maharaja was born as Mahesh Chandra Pattanayak in Jagannatha
   Puri in 1957, on the sacred Mohini Ekadashi tithi. His parents Artta Bandhu Pattanayak and Sailabala
   Pattanayak had three sons and three daughters. The youngest Mahesh Chandra grew up in the village of
   Kalamati and studied at Baku High School in the vicinity of Jagannatha Puri.

   In 1976, in his late teens, while attending the second year of Samanta Chandra Shekhar College, he became
   acquainted with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He initially met two disciples
   of Srila Prabhupada, Padmapani Prabhu and Tamohara Prabhu, who were westerners hailing from Canada.
   He invited them to organize a preaching program at his home in Puri . He received many of Srila
   Prabhupada’s transcendental books and after studying them he decided to join the ISKCON movement as a
   fully dedicated brahmacare.

   He first met his spiritual master, His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja, at Jagannatha Puri in July of
   1978. Soon thereafter, in August, he formally joined the society. During the Gaura Purnima festival in Sri
   Dham Mayapur, on 17th February 1979, he was initiated by His Guru Maharaja, His Holiness Jayapataka
   Swami, and was given his Dikhsa name, Jagadis Das. In the following year, on 22nd July 1980 on the
   premises of ISKCON Kolkata, his Guru Maharaja bestowed upon him the second initiation.

   Throughout the eighties, he served the ISKCON society in various capacities, first as the Sankirtan (book
   distribution) leader in Kolkata. He also initiated and led the boat preaching party based in Sri Dham Mayapur.
   He then took up managerial responsibility as the temple president at ISKCON Bhubaneswar, Orissa (his
   native state), from 1982 to 1987. This experience gave him an introduction to the weighty managerial
   positions he has later embraced.

   On 7th September 1985, he received sannyasa initiation at ISKCON Kolkata from his Guru Maharaja, who
   renamed him as Bhakti Purusottama Swami. In 1987, Maharaja returned to Sri Dham Mayapur to take up
   the duties of the general manager. Under his supervision, the Gita Correspondence Course, Jagrata Chat
   Chatra Samaj College Preaching, as well as itinerant book distribution parties were developed, covering the
   entire state of West Bengal and the surrounding areas.

   At present, Maharaja is serving in Sri Dham Mayapure as one of the members of ISKCON’s Governing Body
   Commission (GBC), with zonal assignments in Eastern India, Bangladesh, Korea, Nepal and the GCC
   countries like UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar. He is also serving as the co-GBC representative
   and co-zonal secretary for North and South Korea, India, Arunachal Pradesh, Mayapur and West Bengal,
   Jagannatha Puri, North and Western Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sikkim, Assam,
   Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bhutan, Meghalaya and Tripura.

   At the same time, Maharaja is further developing both the local and international preaching efforts in many
   novel ways, such as enhancing the yearly Navadwip Dhama Parikrama pilgrimage, as well as encouraging
   and overseeing the numerous Nama Hatta centers throughout West Bengal. Maharaja also organizes a

yearly Sri Khetra Parikrama, taking thousands of ISKCON devotees around the sacred places of Jagannatha
Puri.

In April of 2003, responding to the expansion of the Grihasta community in Sri Dham Mayapur and concerned
for the welfare of the devotee children, Maharaja established the Bhaktivedanta National School, which is
affiliated to the CBSE Board. The school is unique because it welcomes not only children of the local
ISKCON devotees but also the rest of the Hindu children from the vicinity of Mayapur, and even those
belonging to Muslim and Christian communities.

In 2016, at the age of 62, Maharaja took the lead to create the India Tribal Care Trust, a charitable
organization for the welfare of the tribal communities across India. The activities of the trust have been
inspired by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami while Bhakti Purusottama Swami serves as its chairman.

Maharaja is also a prolific author and has published many volumes of valuable devotional literature, such as
The Pastimes of Lord Jagannatha, Sri Khetra Parikrama, Sri Navadwip Parikrama, Death—The Final Call,
Who am I?, Mäyä—The Divine Energy of the Supreme, The Glories and Pastimes of Srimati Radha Rani
(volumes I and II), The Mystery of Ratha-yatra etc. His English books have been translated into Bengali,
Hindi, Russian and other languages.

Besides his immediate managerial responsibilities, Bhakti Purusottama Swami travels to many parts of the
globe encouraging the ISKCON devotee communities in their spiritual development. Apart from his native
Oriyan language, Maharaja preaches fluently in Bengali, Hindi and English to share Krishna consciousness
with the wider audience around the world.